Panchang 18 August 2026: Mangala Gauri Vrat
Today is a Mangala Gauri Tuesday, the third of four in Sawan. Married women keep this vrat for Maa Parvatiji. Tuesday belongs to Mangal (Mars), and the vrat takes its name from the day. No book we hold sets this date. Living tradition does, and it has held it for a very long time.
Today's Panchang
Shukla Shashthi runs until 5:51 PM, then Saptami begins. The Moon stays in Swati all day, moving from the first pada into the second at 6:47 AM. Yoga is Shukla, karana is Taitila. Sunrise is 5:51 AM in Delhi and sunset 6:59 PM. The Moon is 30 percent lit and waxing.
Swati is the star of the young shoot in wind. It gives way and does not break. That reading suits a vrat built on softness rather than force.
The Timing That Matters Today
Rahu Kaal runs 3:42 PM to 5:20 PM.
That is the good news today. The whole morning is clear. On the last two Sawan Mondays, Rahu Kaal sat right on the dawn puja hour and families had to work around it. Today it does not. Keep the morning worship at the time your house already keeps it.
Two more windows to hold decisions out of: Yamaganda from 9:08 AM to 10:46 AM, and Gulika from 12:25 PM to 2:03 PM. If the vrat katha is read in the evening, begin after 5:20 PM. That clears Rahu Kaal with room before sunset. Live times sit on the panchang for 18 August 2026.
Keeping Mangala Gauri
The form is simple. Bathe early and wear clean clothes, red or green where the family keeps that. Set an image of Maa Parvatiji, or a supari on a bed of rice if you have no image. Offer sixteen of each thing where your family keeps the count of sixteen: sixteen flowers, sixteen bilva leaves, sixteen laddu, sixteen bangles.
Light a ghee lamp. Read or listen to the Mangala Gauri katha. Most households keep one meal, taken after the evening puja, with fruit and milk through the day.
Married women keep it for the health of the husband and the peace of the house. In some families unmarried women keep it too. Neither version is wrong.
This is the third of four. The last falls on 25 August.
One Monday Left
Sawan has one Somvar remaining, on Monday 24 August, and it is the fourth and final one of 2026. The month then closes at Purnima on 28 August. The four dates and the full vrat method are on the Sawan 2026 guide.
Beginning a Rudraksha This Week
Sawan is when devotees traditionally put a rudraksha on for the first time. With one Monday left, this is the week to start if you have been meaning to.
The Shiva Purana calls the five-faced bead Rudra himself and names it kalagni. It is the bead most people begin with.
Every Naksham bead is an Original Nepal rudraksha, hand selected, and each bead is lab certified on its own. A free lab X-ray certificate ships with every bead, at every price. The five-faced single bead arrives strung on sacred cotton, ready to wear. To match the mukhi to your own chart, the rudraksha calculator reads your kundali and returns it.
